German scholarship helps refugees become class acts

Thanks to the DAFI programme, Lali is in her first year of a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration. "I am getting so much help and it's making me a stronger person."

NEW DELHI, India, August 23 (UNHCR) – Young, bright-eyed and eager to take on the world: meet Jasmeet Kaur, an Afghan refugee and scholar who is studying to become an accountant.

Back home, the 18-year-old may not have had the same opportunities in a traditional society that exerts enormous pressure on girls to marry young. But she is lucky: "My parents are not educated. It is good that they are supporting me in every way, so that I will be educated," she says.

Jasmeet has spent most of her life in India, where she studied in a government school and has always been an enthusiastic student. Thanks to her hard work, she became one of 39 young refugees in India to be awarded a scholarship under the Albert Einstein German Academic Refugee Initiative (DAFI) this year. Some 350 refugees have been DAFI scholars in India since the program began in 2001.

"I learn once and don't forget," she says, smiling. Her secret? "I make notes and read and then I remember."

Like Jasmeet, many refugees excel in school and are then at loose ends, trying to fund their way through college. The German-funded DAFI scholarships are a lifeline to young refugees eager to further their education. During the current academic year, 20 more DAFI scholarships have been offered. The scholars get a monthly allowance, including for books and tuition fees. This has enabled some of them to get degrees and make something of their lives.

For 21-year-old Lali Nun Pui, the "marketing" training started early. "When I was young, I used to help my parents in their store, selling home-made food in my village," she says. Today, she's a confident young woman in her first year of a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration. With her parents still in Myanmar, she lives alone in Delhi, travelling by the Delhi metro to get to college every day.

"With DAFI, I can study English, I can buy the books I need for college. I am getting so much help and it's making me a stronger person," she says.

The DAFI scholar program is monitored by BOSCO, an implementing partner of UNHCR. Encouraged by UNHCR to do more for their communities, many DAFI scholars are involved in the activities of youth clubs run by this NGO. They help with education campaigns, persuading reluctant parents to send their children to government schools. Some help with tuition classes for refugee children at outreach centres, and all tutor one high school student each. Others help the elderly by visiting and by doing their grocery shopping.

Harveen Singh, 19, is the youngest of five siblings and is in his final year of an honours degree in Commerce at Delhi University. He sees his future in India and, like the rest of his family, has applied for Indian citizenship. "I am like an Indian," he says, looking ahead to a successful career in finance.

The DAFI scholarship is a stepping stone, turning dreams into reality. "I want to work in a big firm and take it even higher. I will prove that I can make a difference," says Jasmeet confidently.

Lali, too, has big plans: "I want to own a large showroom selling ready-made western clothes." Her degree will equip her with the skills necessary to take the first steps towards realising her potential. None of this – not even the dream – would have been possible without her DAFI scholarship.

The German-funded Albert Einstein German Academic Refugee Initiative provides scholarships for refugees to study in higher education institutes in many countries.

Chad: Education in Exile

UNHCR joins forces with the Ministry of Education and NGO partners to improve education for Sudanese refugees in Chad.

The ongoing violence in Sudan's western Darfur region has uprooted two million Sudanese inside the country and driven some 230,000 more over the border into 12 refugee camps in eastern Chad.

Although enrolment in the camp schools in Chad is high, attendance is inconsistent. A shortage of qualified teachers and lack of school supplies and furniture make it difficult to keep schools running. In addition, many children are overwhelmed by household chores, while others leave school to work for local Chadian families. Girls' attendance is less regular, especially after marriage, which usually occurs by the age of 12 or 13. For boys and young men, attending school decreases the possibility of recruitment by various armed groups operating in the area.

UNHCR and its partners continue to provide training and salaries for teachers in all 12 refugee camps, ensuring a quality education for refugee children. NGO partners maintain schools and supply uniforms to needy students. And UNICEF is providing books, note pads and stationary. In August 2007 UNHCR, UNICEF and Chad's Ministry of Education joined forces to access and improve the state of education for Sudanese uprooted by conflict in Darfur.

UNHCR's ninemillion campaign aims to provide a healthy and safe learning environment for nine million refugee children by 2010.

Chad: Education in Exile

Education for Displaced Colombians

UNHCR works with the government of Colombia to address the needs of children displaced by violence.

Two million people are listed on Colombia's National Register for Displaced People. About half of them are under the age of 18, and, according to the Ministry of Education, only half of these are enrolled in school.

Even before displacement, Colombian children attending school in high-risk areas face danger from land mines, attacks by armed groups and forced recruitment outside of schools. Once displaced, children often lose an entire academic year. In addition, the trauma of losing one's home and witnessing extreme violence often remain unaddressed, affecting the child's potential to learn. Increased poverty brought on by displacement usually means that children must work to help support the family, making school impossible.

UNHCR supports the government's response to the educational crisis of displaced children, which includes local interventions in high-risk areas, rebuilding damaged schools, providing school supplies and supporting local teachers' organizations. UNHCR consults with the Ministry of Education to ensure the needs of displaced children are known and planned for. It also focuses on the educational needs of ethnic minorities such as the Afro-Colombians and indigenous people.

UNHCR's ninemillion campaign aims to provide a healthy and safe learning environment for nine million refugee children by 2010.

Education for Displaced Colombians

Statelessness in Sri Lanka: Hill Tamils

Most of the people working on the hundreds of tea plantations that dot Sri Lanka's picturesque hill country are descended from ethnic Tamils brought from India between 1820 and 1840 when the island was under British colonial rule. Although these people, known as "Hill Tamils," have been making an invaluable contribution to Sri Lanka's economy for almost two centuries, up until recently the country's stringent citizenship laws made it next to impossible for them to berecognized as citizens. Without the proper documents they could not vote, hold a government job, open a bank account or travel freely.

The Hill Tamils have been the subject of a number of bilateral agreements in the past giving them the option between Sri Lankan and Indian citizenship. But in 2003, there were still an estimated 300,000 stateless people of Indian origin living in Sri Lanka.

Things improved markedly, in October 2003, after the Sri Lankan parliament passed the "Grant of Citizenship to People of Indian Origin Act," which gave nationality to people who had lived in Sri Lanka since 1964 and to their descendants. UNHCR, the government of Sri Lanka and local organizations ran an information campaign informing Hill Tamils about the law and the procedures for acquiring citizenship. With more than 190,000 of the stateless people in Sri Lanka receiving citizenship over a 10-day period in late 2003, this was heralded as a huge success story in the global effort to reduce statelessness.

Also, in 2009, the parliament passed amendments to existing regulations, granting citizenship to refugees who fled Sri Lanka's conflict and are living in camps in India. This makes it easier for them to return to Sri Lanka if they so wish to.

Statelessness in Sri Lanka: Hill Tamils

Germany: New Hope in Keil

Teenage refugee Abdullah was resettled in Germany, where he was finally able to get the life-saving medical help he needed to treat a blood disorder.

UNHCR: Looking for Safe Shores

2014 has been a record year for movements by sea with desperate people take terrifying risks for the slimmest chance to reach safer lands.

Germany: Sounds of Silence

Born deaf, little Abdu fled the war in Syria at age three. Now he lives in Germany, where surgery and hearing aids are transforming his world.